Spanish (español), also known as Castilian (castellano), is the third most-spoken language in the world. Originating in Spain and spoken by most residents there, it has slightly different pronunciations from the rest of the world's Spanish speakers, as well as a few vocabulary differences.

A Western Romance language, Spanish is closely related to and mutually intelligible with the other romance languages to a wide extent, such as Portuguese, Catalan, French, Italian and Romanian. English and Spanish share variants of approximately one third of their words (via Latin), although the pronunciation tends to be very different.

The Spanish verb tense system is fairly similar to English, but all six person/number combinations take different endings in the indicative. The formal "you" (usted(es)) takes a third-person verb. Spanish has genders, so a man says encantado and a woman says encantada. The indirect object and the animate direct object are both marked by a.

Pronunciation Guide

Spanish spelling has the pleasant characteristic of being very phonetic, with only a few clearly-defined exceptions. This means that if you know how to pronounce the letters of a word, it's relatively easy to sound out the word itself.

Besides having a very small number of vowel sounds and a high predictability of exactly what sound is represented by each letter, Spanish has a very clear set of rules about where a stress normally falls, and exceptions are noted with an "acute accent mark" ("´ ") over the vowel of the stressed syllable. Normally, words that end in a vowel, or in n or s, have the stress on the next-to-last syllable (muchacho = "mu-CHA-cho"); all other words without an explicit accent mark are stressed on the final syllable (hospital = "os-pee-TAL"). There are no secondary stresses within words.

Vowels

The vowels in Spanish are short crisp sounds. They are not dragged out like the English vowels.

a

like 'a' in "father"

e

like 'ay' in "pay" or 'ai' in "hail" when stressed; may take on more of a 'e' in "pet" sound when unstressed

i

like 'ee' in "see"

o

like 'o' in "open

u

like 'u' in "rule"

y

like 'ee' in "see". Very rarely used at the middle or ending of words.

Consonants

b

like 'b' in "bed" (but no aspiration) at the beginning of a word and after 'm': boca. A soft vibration sound almost like English 'v' elsewhere. See v below.

c

follows the same pronunciation pattern as in English. In most cases it is pronounced like 'k' in "kid": calle, doctor. When followed by 'e' or 'i', it is like 's' in "supper" (Latin America) or 'th' in "thin" (Spain): cine (THEE-nay)

ch

like 'ch' in "touch": muchacho

d

like 'd' in "dog": de. In some dialects, a 'd' between two vowels is pronounced with a bit of softness, halfway between the normal 'd' and the 'th' in "the": pasado. You're usually fine just using the 'd' sound.

f

like 'f' in "fine": faro

g

when followed by 'e' or 'i', like a throaty 'h' (general = heh-neh-RAHL), otherwise like 'g' in "go" (gato). In the clusters "gue" and "gui", the 'u' serves only to change the sound of the consonant and is silent (guitarra), unless it bears a diaeresis, as in "güe" and "güi" (pedigüeño). In between vowels, it tends to be voiced and not guturral.

gu, gü

when followed by another vowel, like 'Gw' in Gwen (agua, cigüeña, Camagüey)

h

silent: hora= OR-ah. Pronounced like a softer 'j' only in foreign words.

j

like a throaty 'h' in "ha": jamón;

k

like 'k' in "kid": kilo The letter K is only used in foreign words (karate, kilo, Kiev, etc.).

l

like 'l' in "love": lápiz

ll

like 'y' in "year"; pronounced like a Zh as in 'Zhivago' only in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay: llamar. In at least some parts of Costa Rica and Colombia, pronounced as the English "j" or "g," as in the words "ginger" or "ninja." Also pronounced like 'ly' as in the English word "million" in northern Spain and in the Philippines.

m

like 'm' in "mother": mano

n

like 'n' in "nice", and like 'n' in "anchor": noche, ancla

ñ

like 'ny' in "canyon": cañón, piñata

p

like 'p' in "pig": perro

q

like 'q' in "quiche" (always with a silent "u"): queso, pronounced KAY-so

r, rr

Spanish has two 'r' sounds both of which are different from their counterpart in English. Some effort should be made to approximate each of them, to help listeners distinguish between perro ("dog") and pero ("but")... or perhaps to understand you at all:

single r: This sound is created by putting the tip of the tongue up against where the front of the roof of the mouth meets the upper teeth, very similar to the action English speakers make to pronounce l or d. To an English-speaking ear, it may sound a bit like a combined "d-r". Take care to pronounce r separately when it follows a consonant; a blended English tr will not be recognized in the Spanish word otro ("other"), which should be pronouced more like "OHT-roh".

rolled r: Written "r" at the beginning of the word, or "rr" between vowels (cerro). It's a multiply vibrating sound. Whereas most English speakers can learn to tap out a single r, many adults learning Spanish find this sound impossible to produce; in this case, pronouncing it like a Spanish r or fumbling out a d-r will be better understood than pronouncing it like a long English r.

s

like 's' in "son": sopa; in Spain, it is often pronounced like a soft, palatised "sh" at the end of a word or syllable.

t

like 't' in "top": tapa

v

like 'b' in "bed" (but no aspiration) at the beginning of a word and after 'm': vaca, pronounced BAH-kah. A soft vibration sound almost like English 'v' elsewhere. To distinguish v from b when spelling, one says "vay chica" or "bay grande" to indicate which; native Spanish speakers may not hear the difference between "vee" and "bee". But some Spanish speaking countries do say the 'v' as in "vine" with the teeth on the lower lip.

w

like 'w' in "weight" in English words, whisky, pronounced "WEESS-kee"). Like 'b' in "bed" in Germanic words.

x

like 'x' in "flexible" (flexible). Like 'ss' in "hiss" at beginning of a word (xilófono). Like a throaty 'h' in the words México, mexicano, Oaxaca, and oaxaqueño.

y

like 'y' in "yes": payaso. Like 'y' in "boy": hoy. Pronounced like a Zh ONLY in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay as in 'Zhivago', : yo no sé, pronounced "zhoh noh say".

z

like 's' in "supper" (Latin America), like 'th' in "thin" (Spain): zorro. See c above.

Diphthongs

Most diphthongs can be approximated by blending the first vowel into the second in a single syllable.

ai, ay

like 'eye': baile (BAI-lay)

au

like 'ow' in "cow": causa (KOW-sah)

ea

like 'ay-ah': fea (FAY-ah)

ei, ey

like 'ay' in "say": reina, rey. (RAY-nah)

eu

like 'eh-oo': euro ("eh-OO-roh")

ia

like 'ee-yah': piano (pee-YAH-noh)

ie

like 'ee-yay': pie (PEE-yay)

io

like 'ee-oh': dio (DEE-oh)

iu

like 'ee-oo': ciudad (see-oo-DAHD)

oi, oy

like 'oy' in "boy": soy (soy)

ua

like 'wa' in "wallet": cuatro (KWAH-troh)

ue

like 'we' in "well": puedo (PWAY-doh)

ui, uy

like 'wee' in "ween": ruido (RWEE-doh)

uo

like "wo" in "won't": averiguo (ah-beh-REE-gwoh)

Accents and stress

Word stress can affect the meaning of the word and generally follows these rules:

If a word is marked with an accent, then that syllable receives the stress.

Additionally, if the accent marks a diphthong a syllable break occurs between the two vowels of the diphthong.

If a word is NOT marked with an accent, then

if the word ends in a consonant other than N or S, the stress occurs on the last syllable.

if the word ends in a vowel, N or S, the stress occurs on the next to last syllable.

In Spain, a English ci/ce or z sound makes a English "TH". In Latin America, it makes the "S" sound.

Writing Time

When speaking, times are given in AM/PM form (but saying de la mañana (morning), de la tarde (afternoon), de la noche (evening/night) or de la madrugada (late night) to distinguish between AM and PM. On the other hand, in most countries times are rendered in 24-hour format, with a colon separating hours and minutes:

Writing Dates

Dates are given in day-month-year form. All spoken and written, long and short forms follow this pattern:

May 7th, 2003

7 de mayo del 2003

October 23rd, 1997

23 de octubre del 1997

Day-month constructions (4 de julio, for example) are not usually abbreviated. In the rare cases that an abbreviation is used, the number of the month is not used, but its initial letter is. Usual examples are:

23-F

23 de febrero, date of a failed coup d'état in Spain (1981)

11-S

11 de septiembre, date of the attack to the Twin Towers (2001) (and of the Chilean coup in 1973).

agua con gas (AH-gwah kohn gahs) (if you say agua, if you ask at the bar, it will be tap water (for free), at the table it is normally bottled); Agua mineral (AH-gwah mee-neh-RAHL) is bottled mineral water.

Una jarra de cerveza (normally it will be half a liter, not really a pint, but the size is similar); In Chile or Argentina un schop might be anywhere from 300cc to one liter, in Spain the common is a caña which is 20 cl in a tube glass, also you can ask for un quinto (20 cl bottle) or un tercio (33 cl bottle)

A glass of draft beer

Un schop (oon SHOHP) (Chile and Argentina) / Una cerveza de barril (OO-nah sehr-BEH-sah deh bahr-REEL) (Mexico); in Spain you can ask for Cerveza negra, not very common in spanish Bares, but easy to find in Pubs (Pub=small club where just drinks are served).